Not one soul among the Old Order Forest Kindred of Believers ever thought Ebenezer Theodorus Stilleschuyler would get married. For as long as anyone’s memory looked back, Ebenezer had been too serious to think that way.
You could talk to him about the holy Word, and you could talk to him about sharpening a scythe or mending a harness. He was the first to come over when the barn roof had been damaged in the gales and someone was wanted to help fix it. He had a ready smile, wise and kind; but Eb was evidently shy around the women; he kept his eyes to the ground and his conversation guarded when it came to what was personal.
His word was sober and his thinking right sound; quiet in the meeting most often, when he spoke folks listened for his wisdom. He would have been an elder, only an elder should have a wife – for decorum and for wiser understanding.
You could talk to him about the holy Word, and you could talk to him about sharpening a scythe or mending a harness. He was the first to come over when the barn roof had been damaged in the gales and someone was wanted to help fix it. He had a ready smile, wise and kind; but Eb was evidently shy around the women; he kept his eyes to the ground and his conversation guarded when it came to what was personal.
His word was sober and his thinking right sound; quiet in the meeting most often, when he spoke folks listened for his wisdom. He would have been an elder, only an elder should have a wife – for decorum and for wiser understanding.
